Family vacation in Mammoth, looking for a half day climb in the area - Crystal
Crag comes to mind. I had climbed the granitic plug above Mammoth Lakes before
by an easier route, but this time I was interested in the N. Arete, a 5.7 climb
loved by some (made popular by Peter Croft's book), less-loved by others (Josh
Schwartz called the climbing "complete crap").
Monty and Michael were also vacationing in Mammoth with their families and we
decided this would make a good half day outing. I got Matthew, who'd been out
doing some long days for the weekend, to join us as well. Two ropes, two teams,
a more efficient arrangement than three in a party.

Picking up Monty and Michael at their townhome in the wee hours of the morning,
we made it up to Lake George for a 5a start at the TH. We found the trail to
the start of the route much as Romain Wacziarg had described it in his TR from
his climb a few days earlier. Snow patches made it difficult to follow the trail
directly despite many boot prints from previous hikers. There didn't seem to be
a defined main path following the trail, each party taking random routes up the
hill from the start. We followed Romain's advice and stayed left of the trail
on the NE side of the ridge where the snow coverage was minimal. It turned out
to be a good strategy and we made it to the start of the N. Arete in just about
an hour. The sun came up just as we ducked around the arete to the NW side for
the start. This was a fine thing as temps were already in the 50's and keeping
out of the sun would be the most comfortable strategy for the day. There was a
good deal of snow up around the base of the peak, but absolutely none to be
found once the climbing started.

Though I had seen the route close up on my first visit to the peak, I couldn't
say where the start was or describe any part of the two-pitch climb. Michael,
on the other hand, had seemingly memorized all the available beta and instantly
pointed out the 5.8 start and the 5.7 start with the crux bulge in the first 20
feet. Nice to have an encyclopedia along on a climb. Now that the start was
properly identified, we played the game of which team was going to go first and
who was going to lead. Michael had already "awarded" Monty the lead as a
birthday present, but Matthew and I were trying to push the lead on each other.
Michael even chimed in and offered to lead if neither of us wanted to, but I
couldn't have let that happen - major wuss points if we split up the team for
that. I was really just trying to let Matthew have the lead if he felt up to it,
so in the end I got the lead and Matthew and I headed up first since we had our
gear ready before the others. I went up the first pitch, finding the bulge not
so hard with very good holds all around. I placed 4 or 5 cams for protection
as I went off the main arete to follow an easier ramp on the west side. Monty,
leading on Matthew's heels, climbed the face to the left of the bulge and then
took a more direct route onto the arete. While I was belaying Matthew,
I had a good view of Monty on the arete now climbing above Matthew, but
to his left. Matthew was just below me struggling to get the last cam out,
silently working for some fifteen minutes or so. Monty disappeared around the
edge of the arete and I heard him shout and scream an obscenity in a very
non-Monty manner. A large rock had come loose and rolled onto his ankle. He
tried to return the rock to it's place and get it off his foot, but gravity
overcame Monty's arm strength and the rock let go below him.

Michael scrambled into the small alcove below the bulge as the two main rocks
came crashing down into the location Michael had been standing a few seconds
earlier. Monty's direct line up the arete had a certain danger we hadn't
considered. I saw the rocks tumble out of sight and then again as they hit the
snow below the start of the route. It was an impressive event to watch, and
thankfully without any serious consequence. Monty's ankle got cut up a bit and
looked a bloody mess when I viewed it later, but apparently without any
significant injury. After the hoopla subsided, I commented to Matthew - still
working at the cam - "I guess that makes our problem look pretty insignificant."

Matthew stopped working at the cam to climb up and let me have a go. Some
serious giggling got it out of its jam and we were on our way again.
Matthew took our second pitch, keeping to the right of the other rope
and the arete. While I sat there letting rope out and taking in the views,
Michael came up the arete and climbed out of sight above me. Matthew
checked out a few options before climbing up into a pocket where he set
up a belay with about 1/3 of the rope remaining. As I came up I passed by
Monty belaying Michael at their first belay before I reconnected with
Matthew. We switched leads again and I started up out of the pocket.
The third pitch brought us up to the arete on the quartz pitch where I met up
again with Michael who was now at the top of their second pitch. The
quartz pitch was an interesting stretch of dirty white quartz rock, but as
Michael accurately commented, it's only 12ft long.

We ended the roped climbing above the quartz formation and
packed away our gear. It was warm now in the sun. From here we continued
along the ridge over the lower north summit on some spicy
class 3-4 climbing with considerable exposure at times. I thought this
part was the best part of the entire climb. At the summit around 9a, we
signed into the summit register and took a short break before heading down.
Someone had left a Toblerone chocolate bar in the register that had been
nibbled on by a marmot. After Matthew and then I each had a section of the
chocolate, we had no other takers. Matthew left us at the summit to continue
the traverse down the South Ridge and then on up to Mammoth Crest. He made a
very long day of traversing Mammoth Crest to Duck Pass, then along the Sherwin
Crest, finishing up on Mammoth Rock - it wasn't until 9p that he was back to
his car. Meanwhile, the other three of us headed down the class 2-3
West Face of Crystal Crag and then took the shortcut return down to Lake George by following a use trail on the north side of the cascading falls that
drain Crystal Lake into Lake George. We got back just after 11a, then
moved Matthew's car down to his expected exit point by Sherwin Crest before we
headed back to town.

We all agreed that the climbing was superb, solid granite for the most part -
despite the rockfall incident. We can't quite understand why Josh considered it
crap and now I'm very interested in finding out about some of the routes he
finds more deserving.